“Mari, can you get me my phone?”
She bit her lip. “I’ll try.”
“Thank you.”
I made my way to the bench, sat down, and hung my head.Fuck. Penn just wanted to leave this town, and I wouldn’t let him. I probably should have. Maybe he’d be safe and not in the hands of that psycho Anders.
“He’ll be ok.” Alex sat beside me. “He’s tough.”
“He may not feel pain and fear, Alex, but that doesn’t mean he can’t die.” I turned my head to face him. “And Lorcan will want him to hurt…what do you think he’ll do to him when he doesn’t get the reaction he wants from Penn?”
Alex had the intelligence to not answer that. He pressed his back against the wall behind us. “We’ll get to him.”
I ran my hands through my hair, glad they hadn’t thrown us in here cuffed. “I just don’t know how much of him will be left when we do.”
I lost track of time as I sat there thinking about all the ways I’d failed Penn, my kids, and family. I closed my eyes and thought of Ella. It was always the same freeze-frame. The morning she died, sitting at the table with me and the twins laughing at me about something I said. Her auburn hair glowing as the sun hit it, her blue eyes sparkling like jewels. I missed her every day. It was a hole I’d never filled and I’d have been fine if I never had…then Penn walked into my life, and everything shifted.
“Mr. Hendrix?”
I opened my eyes and saw Mari standing by the bars and quickly moved to her. She slipped my phone through the slots, and I snagged it.
“Thank you.”
I went back to the bench, and when I looked at my phone saw I had a voice mail, and one text. I opted for the voice mail first.
“Gid, it’s Penn…which of course you knew. It’s hard to type with my hands cuffed behind me, so I had to call using my nose.” He fucking chuckled. He was being taken to his death, and the man laughed. “Anyway, I’m sure if they find this phone, a few things will happen. One, they’d switch locations thinking I told you and two…probably destroy it. Neither is ideal.” Again he laughed.
He sounded okay. I couldn’t put it on speaker or I’d risk someone I didn’t want to overhear, so Alex, Danny, and Toni were watching me while also blocking anyone’s view to me.
“I don’t know where they’re taking me, Gid, but I’ll be okay. There’s only the rear window. Been driving a bit. Once the van stops, I’m going to share my location…I’m sure my nose can do that. I’ll have to leave the phone in the van; I can kick it under the seat here but can’t take it with me.” He sighed, and there was silence for a beat. “Promise me something, Gid. If this doesn’t end well for me, you can’t blame yourself. You may have thought you stopped me from leaving but if I’d really wanted to go, I would have. Do. Not. Blame. Yourself. Just maybe get this motherfucker off the face of the earth. Bye.”
The voice mail ended, and I ignored the lump in my throat as I checked his text message. He shared the location. “Fuck!”
“What is it?” Alex asked.
“He shared his location.” I showed it to him.
“The marina?”
“Lorcan’s yacht…which means he could be anywhere if he took it out.”
Danny rushed to the bars and called for Mari. “Can you get word to Jeff, or anyone on Gideon’s crew, get to the marina. If Lorcan’s yacht is there, don’t let it leave.”
“Sure.”
“I could have made the call,” I argued.
“Not likely.” Danny side-eyed the bullpen. “You have company.”
Sure enough, my lawyer and the commissioner were coming my way.I had better be getting the hell out of here.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Pennsylvania
A yacht didn’t bode wellfor Gideon getting to me if it left the dock. As soon as I’d sent my location via the GPS to Gideon, I’d known I was most definitely screwed.
I kicked my phone under the bench on the far side of the van. Unless they were looking for it, they wouldn’t see it, likely focused on getting me onto that boat.
